Tag Archives: Lutheran Family Services

A trained sniper and special forces service member from Kabul, Afghanistan, is not who people expect to see standing behind the counter of a grocery store. Even more uncommon is that the store is run by two cousins from Kabul who wound up in different parts of this country before reuniting in Omaha to run an international grocery store.

Muhib Hassan and Niamatullah Habibzai were born in Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan. They attended the same high school, and signed up to work with the U.S. military as linguists soon after they graduated. Habibzai spoke Dari and Pashto, two of the most commonly spoken languages in Afghanistan. He started working with the U.S. military in 2005. Hassan began working with the U.S. two years later.

“When the U.S. military came in, there was a very urgent need of linguists back then,” Habibzai says.

“If you knew a little bit of English, they would hire you, just to communicate with local people.”

Habibzai worked as a cultural adviser and interpreter between the U.S. military and the Afghan National Army. Hassan worked with U.S. special forces, and helped train the Afghan Local Police, Afghan National Police, and the Afghan Border Police. He also went to villages and communicated with local elders.

Habibzai and Hassan faced threats both implied and physical for working with the U.S. military. Habibzai says he cannot return to the village where their family lived for fear of retaliation by the Taliban.

“Even our relatives were blaming us for bringing Americans to the village,” Hassan says.

Hassan took shrapnel in his hand when he was involved in a firefight in 2012. Sitting next to a white freezer at their grocery store, Subzi Mundi, Hassan rolled up his sleeve and traced a line across his left thumb and index finger where the shrapnel entered. He says he has almost no feeling in his left index finger.

Hassan and Habibzai’s service helped them each obtain a Special Immigration Visa (SIV), which are primarily given to Afghans and Iraqis who have assisted the U.S. military. In 2016, the state department estimated it granted about 20,000 SIVs to Afghans who have assisted the U.S. military (the number also includes family members of those who have helped).

With his SIV secured, Habibzai moved to Fairfax, Virginia, in April 2011. He was still working for the military as a contractor. He then moved to North Dakota because some of his friends in the military were living there. In 2014, Habibzai moved to Omaha.

“I wanted to settle somewhere that I can have a family and raise my kids,” Habibzai says. “I thought Omaha was a good place.”

Subzi Mundi became a go-to grocery store for ingredients common to his cuisine, like goat meat and fresh dates. After repeated trips, he expressed an interest in buying the store outright. However, undertaking all of the responsibilities of running a grocery store is too much for one person. He needed a partner.

Enter his cousin.

Hassan moved to Durham, North Carolina, in 2013. He chose this location because he knew friends in the military who lived there. While in Durham, he worked as a truck driver and a driver coordinator (recruiting other truck drivers). Hassan brought wife Noorya and his daughter (since then, they have had another daughter, 3, and a son, 14 months old).

“It was hard for them,” Hassan says. “When I was at work, they were just sitting at home all the time.”

In his first few months in the United States, his daughter fell ill with a fever and kidney infection. He didn’t even know where to take her.

“I called my friend, he was living two hours away from me,” Hassan says.

His friend drove to his home and gave the family a ride to the hospital. While at the hospital, Hassan said he didn’t even have an insurance card on him.

“I didn’t have anything,” Hassan says.

What he did have was family, and when Habibzai asked for help running a store, Hassan and his family moved to Omaha.

Last year, Hassan agreed to help his cousin in buying Subzi Mundi. Habibzai had saved money he made contracting with the military and used it to secure the business. He and his cousin formed an LLC (AFG Cousins). In October 2016, Hassan and Habibzai became owners of Subzi Mundi.

The two cousins also have a nonbiological family member in Omaha who works with Lutheran Family Services. Lacey Studnicka, director of advancement for community services at LFS, heard about Hassan and Habibzai’s story. LFS provides assistance to SIV holders. Studnicka says LFS, as well as the state department, provides similar services to SIV recipients as refugees. The primary difference is the path to getting a visa is usually much shorter for SIV recipients because of the services they offer to the U.S. military, even though the vetting process is just as intensive, Studnicka says. The actions of linguists like Hassan and Habibzai have saved soldiers lives, something she routinely hears from service members.

“Not only did they serve our country, but now they’re business owners, and giving back to the community,” Studnicka says.

Visit @subzimundi1 on Facebook to learn more about this grocery store.

Nicole Carrillo says she can make friends anywhere. Even at the airport.

Case in point: On a chilly night in November, Nicole stood with her fellow Thrive Club members at Eppley Airfield holding colorful signs. Nicole’s read “WELCOME TO OMAHA!” with the O’s shaped like hearts. Moments later, wild applause, laughter, and some tears erupted from the relatives, students, and coaches gathered for this moment.

Nicole’s soon-to-be-new friends were a refugee family just arriving from Burma. Marisol, Nicole’s mother and one of the sponsors of Thrive, was overwhelmed as tears flooded her eyes. “It was life- changing,” Marisol recalls.

Members of the Thrive Club, along with Lutheran Family Services, provided a cozy home environment for the immigrant family in an apartment volunteer’s chocked full of groceries, clothes, and furniture.

Nicole, a junior at Northwest High School, had filled out a grant to present to her principal, Thomas Lee, to do something for a family that would be lost in a foreign world.

Emigrating is hard, scary, often emotionally draining. Nicole’s empathy stems from hearing the story of her parents. Marisol, a native of Mexico, left for the United States in her teens to pursue a cosmetics license. It was difficult, she says, but she argues she had it easier than her husband Joel, who she would later meet in English classes.

Joel started his first job in the “worst town you can think of”—Aguascalientes, Mexico. He loaded heavy bricks into trucks and, along with 15 or so other boys, sold them house-to-house. He was five at the time. Joel came to the United States when he was 15. Later, he worked 60 to 70 hours a week while attending college classes at night, sometimes even taking a course during his lunch hour.

Nicole sees what her parents had to go through—all their hard work. So she strives to be the best. As a 4.0 student, Nicole is currently right behind her best friend for the top spot on the GPA ladder. “It has been a long steady fight,” she says, “but it’s all in good fun.” However, like most high achievers, Nicole gets upset if she receives a B on a test or paper, but her parents do not.

“My parents are like ‘you are doing the best you can,’” Nicole says resting her hand on her cheek during a recent interview.. “Love them.”

Nicole says attending Northwest was one the best decisions she has ever made. “She is one of the best ambassadors for the school,” Lee says. Nicole is active in all aspects of the school, including student council, National Honor Society, and choir. She has won numerous community service awards and was one of five in the nation to be selected for the National Youth Advisory Council.

Nicole is now eager to show the Burmese family all the “simple things we take for granted” around Omaha—“like the mall and zoo,” she says.

“Nicole has the heart to help…to make a better world,” her mother says proudly.

Lorraine Chang is all about sticking it out—whether it’s winning over skeptical constituents at their doorstep, reorganizing inefficient corporate and government bureaucracy, or even just making it through the 90th minute of a hot yoga class.

Chang currently sits as Chairperson for the Learning Community Coordinating Council’s 3rd District. Entering her third election, Chang said she’s thought about stepping aside, “But given where we are right now, there’s still so much more I want to be a part of getting done,” she says. “It means too much. I really do love what I’m doing and find it very, very rewarding.”

While sitting in a Women’s Fund of Omaha Ready to Run meeting in 2007, a Westside Community Schools board member informed the group about upcoming elections for the newly formed Learning Community. “I found myself writing the pros and cons as she was talking,” Chang said. “It was this automatic reflex of interest.”

Developed during a contentious time in Omaha’s evolving education landscape, Chang said the Learning Community was met with intense skepticism she’s still trying to quell.

“When I would walk door to door, people would say, ‘I don’t want it to be taking over my school and telling my district what to do! They’re doing a great job, what’s the Learning Community going to do that’s going to be better? You’re going to take my tax dollars!’ They had all kinds of imaginative things they came up with, so I’d say, ‘We haven’t even started! This group hasn’t even met yet, so tell me what you want it to be because the possibilities are so great and we can make this something that’s really beneficial to the district.’”

Six years later, Chang says change has been slow, but still effective. The Learning Community has developed a more definitive purpose and mission and is taking aim at closing the learning and achievement gaps across socio-economic landscapes.

“We have contracts with Lutheran Family Services to provide family support workers who are in the schools and work with principals and teachers. If there is a child identified as absent a certain amount of days or who is struggling with some other sort of issue, or academics, those are a sign that there’s something going on. And if it’s something outside the school, like a family situation, like transport, or the family’s having the kid babysit, or whatever it may be, the social worker can help identify what the issues are and get the family the help they need,” Chang adds.

Chang said things are starting to click with the Learning Community. “I think we’re just beginning to realize the full potential of the Learning Community, and that’s the greatest benefit over time.”

Tara Ziesel has often had to ask for time off from her job for emergency runs to her son’s preschools. Her boy, Caden, was, as she says, “a holy terror.” When frustrated or angry, he lashed out with profanities and wild tantrums on his instructors. When mad, he has quite an arm. He was kicked out of numerous preschools around the city.

In kindergarten, he was suspended three times in his first 30 days. One of those days, Caden had ransacked the principal’s office by the time Tara arrived.

Here’s the thing, though: As in so many cases of kids lashing out, Tara had played a big role in Caden’s upsets. Caden was taken from Tara as a toddler because of Tara’s addiction to meth. “I was gone for months at a time, Tara says. “His grandmother had to take custody because of me. I was a bad mom and it hurt him.”

The goal of the Child Saving Institute’s KidSquad program, which Caden started in after being referred by his therapist, is not only to help children better understand and manage their emotions, but to also help heal strained relationships between parents and children that so often are the wellspring of the troubles.

“At the time I got sober [in 2009], our relationship was wrecked,” Tara says. “In the CSI therapy, we worked together, worked on building back our bond and trust. It’s had a profound effect on how we interact now. And it’s had a profound impact on how Caden interacts with others at school.”

The trick to KidSquad’s success is its holistic approach to tackling behavioral problems, says the program’s coordinator, Jana Habrock. CSI counselors work with psychologists, pediatricians, psychiatrists, school counselors, teachers, and caregivers to ensure that the child is getting the same instructions and care in all of his or her environments.

“We feel it’s so important for everyone in the child’s life to be on the same page,” Habrock says. “We all work together to teach the child healthy emotional literacy—mad, sad, frustrated; what is it I’m really feeling right now?”

There are three basic tasks at the heart of KidSquad, which CSI runs with the help of Lutheran Family Services, Heartland Family Services, and the Center for Holistic Development, among other organizations. The root problems must be identified. The child must be helped to identify those emotions that cause the problems. Then, effective coping mechanisms must be identified and taught so that the child turns to those mechanisms when they experience trigger emotions.

For example, Caden’s primary triggers for tantrums were feelings of frustrations and fear of change, his mother says. When he’s winding up, he’s directed to the coping mechanisms that have been found to work for him.

Sometimes, Habrock says, the tricks can be as simple as going to a “Coping Corner.” Sometimes a child will blow a pinwheel while concentrating on his or her breathing. Sometimes it helps to just knead a squishy ball for a while.

KidSquad has a full-time staff of 15 working with children throughout Douglas and Sarpy County. The program has expanded greatly in the last five years, Habrock says. Beyond helping individual children, Habrock says, the program’s staff is now going into preschools and school classrooms throughout the metro to teach instructors how to cope with and help troubled kids. Beyond working with 116 individual children, KidSquad educators assisted in 150 classrooms and 75 early childhood programs last year, Habrock says.

CSI staff will work with a child for four to six months on average, she says. But, there is no time limit. They’ll work with a child as long as necessary to get results, she says.

Caden stayed with the program for a year and a half. “He was a pretty angry kid when he came in,” Habrock says. “With his grandparents and his mom, we had to work through some pretty tough stuff.”

But, it was all worth it, Tara says. Caden, who will be a second grader this fall, will still have outbursts, she says, but they are now less severe and less common.

“It’s been a long process,” Tara says. “But he has come so far. He still has his moments, but he’s really doing well. Life is much better for both of us. Much more calm. We’re headed in the right direction.”

Little 5-year-old Emma already knows her ABCs. Well, most of them. And she can count to five. Sometimes all the way to seven.

But is she really ready for kindergarten?

Academic ability is only one indicator of whether a child is ready to make the transition from preschool into a kindergarten classroom.

“Research shows that academic learning does not happen in the absence of social and emotional development,” says Megan Jones, Mental Health Therapist. “A child’s brain simply doesn’t take in information without the ability to cope with the environment and handle the stressors that are involved in everyday life.”

In other words, if by the age of five, a child has not learned to sit quietly without running all over a room, or know how to handle another child hurting their feelings without completely melting down and losing control—he or she will struggle. To absorb spelling and math lessons, he needs to be able to calmly move from one task to another or even from naptime to lunchtime without stress.

Behavior problems in young children can be addressed, and it’s crucial that parents act as soon as possible. In fact, the younger the child, the more easily and quickly the issues can be corrected. Experts have found that, depending on the child’s history, something as simple as changing a bedtime routine or redirecting playtime activities can provide insight and solutions to a child’s behavioral needs. Children who have witnessed or experienced trauma, however, may require more extensive therapy.

Fortunately, our little Emma has developed the social and emotional tools she will need—friendship skills, coping skills, problem solving, and how to recognize and label emotions: “I’m angry.” “I’m sad today.” “I’m having a happy day.” These powerful tools will allow her to face her kindergarten classroom calmly, with confidence, and destined for success.

If you think your child may need early childhood behavioral therapy, please contact Lutheran Family Services (LFS) at 402-661-7100. If childhood sexual abuse is of concern, LFS also shares building space and is a partner agency with Project Harmony. This allows the best integration of services for area children.

She may have been young, but Kassie (not her real name) knew one thing for sure—when she had children, she would not beat them. After spending her childhood frightened and hurting from physical abuse, she absolutely refused to do the same to her children.

But how was she supposed to stop that pattern of violence?

Kassie found the answers she needed at the North Omaha Center for Healthy Families. She came to the Center wanting to be trained to parent differently. Now the young mother of a toddler and a nine-month old, she’s learning how to parent and discipline her children with love, and without regret. She likes to call it “E-Parenting,” or parenting with empathy.

Better yet, Kassie is now taking part in the new Lutheran Family Services Home Visitation program, a special “at-home” version of the support that pregnant women and parents of newborns can receive. It’s confidential and completely free. A parent coach from LFS visits Kassie at home regularly. How are the children doing? Are the teeth coming in okay? Any special screenings or shots due that you need to get?

It’s almost like having an extra grandmother for advice.

The Home Visitation program is available to any Douglas County resident 19 years or older who is pregnant or the parent of a newborn up to six months old. The goal? To give new babies a healthier start and their parents a better chance of developing confidence and self-sufficiency.

It’s working for Kassie. At the time of this writing, she was excitedly telling her parenting coach about the new job she just landed. Along with developing her parenting skills, getting a better job was one of Kassie’s primary goals when she joined the program. She’s thrilled at what this means for her ability to care for her children.

If you know of someone who would benefit from the Home Visitation program, please call Tameshia Harris (402-504-1733) at the North Omaha Center for Healthy Families.

The apartment’s living room is warm. Blankets are on the couches, an old TV is playing cartoons, and 5-year-old Hana is mimicking the enthusiastic English of the monkey onscreen. Her grandmother, Zinab Abdelmote, watches from the couch, quiet and smiling.

Amna Hussein tells her daughter to lower the sound. “Zuza!” she calls her by nickname. Amna sets down a silver tray with one glass of juice. “From Egypt,” she says, gesturing to the delicate tray. Dinner, she says, is cooking.

She’s experiencing her first full winter in Omaha. She arrived in February 2013, after a circuitous route from her home country of Sudan that spans several years. Six of those were spent in a refugee camp in Egypt. Though Amna lives in a small apartment with Hana, her mother, Zinab, and her younger sister Elham, three of her siblings are still in Egypt. Two sisters, Najwa and Suzan, live close by in Omaha. Two other siblings are in Libya, two are missing in Darfur, and the eldest is living in the U.K.

There were 16 of them once upon a time. Amna laughs at the shock the number incites. “How did she do it?” she asks, gesturing at Zinab.

Amna is obviously proud of her mother. She, Najwa, and Elham take turns watching out for Zinab throughout the day. Her heart is bad, she has kidney problems, and high blood pressure. Her current dream, Amna translates, is to learn English. “Her willingness to study has stayed with her to this moment.”

Zinab’s daughters living in Omaha are already deep into studies at Metro Community College: a few hours a day of ESL, per the requirement to receive temporary aid for needy families (TANF). Their knowledge quickly outgrew the English classes provided by Southern Sudan Community Association, where they still receive some case management.

“We’re comparable to Lutheran Family Services,” says Marni Newell, SSCA program coordinator. “Just a lot smaller.” Newell explains that as a federal resettlement facility, they have 90 days to offer in-depth information on a wide variety of complex topics: Medicaid, food stamps, banking, job searching, English classes, cultural orientation, and driver’s ed. Other assistance includes helping to apply for relatives’ resettlement, applying >for citizenship, and demonstrating how to ride the bus.

Amna reflects on how much she’s learned just in the year she’s been in Omaha. She and Elham entered the U.S. through Miami. The use of Spanish everywhere in the airport threw her off. “I asked a caseworker, are we really in America?” Amna recalls. She can laugh about it now. After a stop in Washington, D.C., the sisters arrived in Omaha. “I was thinking…I have been to small villages before but…” She chuckles again.

But she says, “Omaha’s like a land of knowledge. A land of peace. It’s a friend to all refugees to find a right beginning for their life. To resettle correctly, this is the right beginning. Leave the dreams for a while. Then later on, you can go.”

Elham sets down a plate of beans with tomato paste and spices, some thin bread, and two slices of American cheese. Amna excuses herself to get Hana her dinner.

Elham’s English is only slightly less fluent than Amna’s, but the confidence is there.

“Refugees see America as a dream,” Elham says. “But when they start their life, they face real problems. Many become, like, lost. Because their families back in the refugee camp think they will send money. And people in refugee camps think life in America is very easy. You can find money and jobs anywhere. But since February [2013], I haven’t got a job. I’ve interviewed many, many places.”

It’s a difficult life—going to school, finding work. “Najwa,” Elham says, referring to her elder sister who lives with three grade-school children, “is father, mother…everything. Here, you have friends to help you with these things.” But if you’re new to the country, she says, who do you have? She shrugs. “You can’t get a car without a job. And you can’t have a job without a car.”

Amna returns, saying it’s time to have tea. Her conversation is gentler than Elham’s as she stands over the stove, but she mirrors her younger sister’s opinions.

For example, she’s learning how to drive, but money has a lot of other places to go first. “At the beginning when we came,” Amna explains, “the organization does it for us. But three months is not enough. After three months, they require us to find a job. Some people can’t start school for two years because they’re running here and there to support the family. Even now, for me to go to a job and to school, it’s a problem.”

Still, she says she hopes to start work at Walmart soon as a cashier. The goal is to study at Metro and work at the same time. Of course, daycare is a problem. Due to Hana’s September birthday, she missed the cut-off date for kindergarten. Transportation, as always, is a headache.

But studying is important. “Here, there is no limit to education,” Amna says. “No matter your age, we can study what we like. We’re greedy to learn as much as we can.” She and her sisters hold college degrees in a variety of fields, but “the technology that America has reached, we feel that we are behind. In technology, development, education…”

Amna, for example, has a bachelor’s in English and sociology from India, as well as a diploma in health and social care from the U.K. She’s thinking of eventually taking up nursing studies.

“We will study according to what the market needs,” Elham chimes in. “If I studied geography, maybe I’ll do nothing. You must start with what the market needs. That is first.”Amna sets down a glass of hot tea with a single clove for fragrance. “You can take it with you,” she says, nudging the mug. “You will come back. It’s fine.”

Another winter day, another trip to the small apartment. A variety of pastas and glasses of nonalcoholic liqueur cover the dining room table. The atmosphere is intimate. The headscarves have come off, and the talk becomes frank.

“I lost my job,” Amna confides. Her voice is still gentle but frustrated. The buses, she explains, can’t reliably get her to Walmart on time and home again.

“I must work,” she says. “Someplace where I can walk to.” She mentions a few places she’s thought of and is unfazed when told it would take an hour to get there. “It’s good exercise for me.”

But here, in the small, warm apartment, frustrations are put aside for a moment. Elham brings tea to the living room, and Amna produces a small bottle of homemade perfume. “For after dinner,” she explains. “To cover the scent.”

Arabic and English swirl around the room as six women chatter about anything and everything and nothing in Omaha, Nebraska.

Editor’s note: As of late January, both Amna and Elham have found employment.

Being a child in the foster care system can be lonely and confusing. Just ask Tabitha. Shuffled from one home to another, one town to another—by the time she was in high school, she was an entire year behind in her studies. She lost track of the number of foster homes and families that she left behind. It wasn’t until she was 17—nearly out of the system—that she became part of a family.

While foster care is not ideal, there are a few people who provide some stability and support while you are part of the “system.” Your caseworker. Maybe your therapist. But once you turn 19, those connections are usually lost. There may not be one single, caring adult who asks if you are doing okay. If you have enough to eat or just need a little help. If you have a place to stay or a way to get to work—if you even have a job. Or a way to go to college.

Just one caring person can make all the difference for a young adult who ages out of foster care. On their own, many are simply lost. Without connections, the statistics are grim for these older teens and young adults. Within two years, half are essentially homeless. They may be couch-surfing just to have a warm place to sleep. They have no network to find a job. Few can afford a car or even know how to drive, since the State of Nebraska doesn’t take on the liability of state wards learning those skills. They are easy targets for pimps and human traffickers. Many become pregnant.

Now, Lutheran Family Services of Nebraska (LFS) has adopted the national “Family Finding” model. This model recognizes the urgency of helping these young people establish meaningful, supportive, permanent relationships with loving adults—simply as a matter of safety, to start.

LFS is currently the only Nebraska agency providing these types of permanency services to 19-26 year-olds previously in foster care. In July 2013, LFS’ Permanent Connections program began working to build bridges for young adults to biological family members, former foster parents, siblings, former case workers, or group home staff. Most recently, LFS began expanding this support to young adults in Fremont and surrounding areas.

The program starts by identifying 40 people who have somehow been involved in the life of the young person. From this group, a smaller team is chosen. This team includes those willing to make a long-term commitment to this young adult and be an active, stable part of their lives. It’s not as formal as adoption; more like a vow to be a friend.

Many youth who grow up in foster care or spend significant time in foster homes transition into adulthood alone. They lose contact with all the people in their lives who were once in a caring role. Permanent Connections helps these youth create ties with caring and supportive adults who can give them some stability and support.

Lutheran Family Services President and CEO Ruth Henrichs remembers meeting a young man a year ago who had a tattoo on his lower arm that read “Born to Lose.” When she asked him about it, he told her that life had always been against him—that he had been “born to lose.” That was, of course, until he came to LFS, he said.

“There are lots of people who come to LFS on a daily basis who have this sort of invisible tattoo on their hearts that says ‘Born to Lose,’” Henrichs says. “I want them to leave here after receiving help with a different invisible tattoo.”

Strengthening the individual, the family, and the community is how LFS intends to change those heart tattoos. And that’s exactly the mission the organization has followed since its humble beginnings in 1892.

“When you work somewhere like LFS, no matter how difficult the day is, you always go home knowing that someone’s life was changed because you came to work.” —Ruth Henrichs

Over its many years within the Omaha community, LFS has grown into a faith-based nonprofit providing multiple services in over 30 locations across Nebraska, Iowa, and Kansas to over 35,000 individuals annually regardless of age, race, religion, or income. In other words, just because it’s called Lutheran Family Services doesn’t mean you have to be Lutheran to receive aid.

Mental health counseling, sexual abuse treatment, substance abuse treatment, foster care, adoption, pregnancy counseling, family support services, immigrant and refugee services—they do it all and more for people in need.

“When you work somewhere like LFS, no matter how difficult the day is, you always go home knowing that someone’s life was changed because you came to work,” says Henrichs, who worked as a pregnancy and adoption counselor, a marriage and family therapist, and Interim CEO with LFS before she became its leader in 1985.

She believes LFS’ work is part of the fabric of the community. For many years, nonprofits used to work alone, focusing only on their own work. Now, however, many organizations, including LFS, embrace the idea of uniting their limited resources with other organizations’ limited resources to provide a bigger impact.

“There’s a rich diversity of nonprofits in the Omaha community, and we all offer difference services. Together, we have a collective impact. It’s important that we all work cooperatively so that our community can be strong. Communities are only as strong as their weakest link. Everyone has problems in life. Sometimes, those problems are so great that people need the help of the community. When the community helps those people, it strengthens the community as a whole.”

Nancy K. Johnson, volunteer and president of LFS’ Forever Families Guild, agrees. “Children are the future, as cliché as it sounds,” she says. “If, for example, we can get in there and help a single parent learn to be a better parent, that trickles down into our community to make it stronger.”

“We work with families and children to increase academic performance and help with obstacles, like attendance, to make sure the students are doing well with their education.” —Nellie Beyan

Johnson, who also works in real estate as the senior vice president of CBRE-MEGA, was introduced to LFS about 15 years ago through Adoption Links Worldwide, which later aligned with LFS. She began attending fundraising events for the organization and met Cheryl Murray, who was the executive director of Adoption Links at that time. “I really admire Cheryl a lot. She’s passionate and dedicated to the cause of helping young women and children. She’s one of those kinds of gals that you can’t say no to,” she laughs.

Clearly, Johnson couldn’t say no to Murray, now a development officer and guild liaison for LFS, because she was drawn into more volunteer work with LFS. “I started volunteering more for them, and I became the president for LFS’ Forever Families [Guild].”

As the guild president, Johnson works to increase fundraising and gain more exposure through other organizations. “There’s an organization called CREW (Commercial Real Estate Women) that I’ve been involved with before through my real estate work. So I mentioned the Forever Families Guild to them, and they’ve picked the guild up as their philanthropy of choice for the next year.

“People are always afraid to volunteer because they think it takes too much time or money, but it really is simple…LFS can do a lot on limited funds and time because the group is so passionate.”

One such passionate supporter is Nellie Beyan, who works as a Family Support Liaison with LFS in the Omaha community and the Omaha Public Schools district.

“We work with families and children to increase academic performance and help with obstacles, like attendance, to make sure the students are doing well with their education,” Beyan says. “OPS has a large population of Burmese refugees [the Karen] that we work with, too.”

Working with refugees and immigrants comes easily for Beyan because she, herself, is an Omaha transplant. She moved in April 2000 from her home country of Liberia to work as an international volunteer with LFS. Later, she enrolled at University of Nebraska-Omaha to get her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in social work with the help of sponsors Mr. and Mrs. Howard Hawks and Mr. and Mrs. Jeff Alseth.

“I underwent a similar experience and hardships that most non-Americans undergo when they first come to America…I can put myself in their shoes because I know exactly what it’s like to come into a country with a new culture and new way of life, leaving family behind. It’s a difficult thing, the assimilation process. It’s very gradual, but it’s made easier by the available resources.”

“People are always afraid to volunteer because they think it takes too much time or money, but it really is simple.” —Nancy K. Johnson

Beyan likes working with LFS because she feels that the organization is everywhere in the community. “Imagine what Omaha would be like without LFS,” she muses. “I can’t even picture that. Without all that they have to offer, especially for all of the immigrants and refugees, people would be totally lost.”

Understanding just how many people in the community rely on LFS, Henrichs and the Board of Directors are taking major steps to improve LFS’ outreach and work in Omaha.

“Whether we’re talking children’s needs or refugee and immigrant needs, we’ve recently decided our focus in the program development should be primarily on prevention and early intervention,” she explains. “Many services are ‘fire truck’ in that they respond when a crisis happens. We need to become ‘smoke detectors’ and catch issues before they become bigger problems.”

Another improvement? They’ve been at their 24th & Dodge location for more than a decade, and they’ve slowly been acquiring the city block between Dodge and Douglas streets in order to renovate and build more space. “Many that we serve are in the heart of the city,” Henrichs says. “We’re going to stay right here.”

And here is exactly where the community wants them to stay.

Lutheran Family Services will host their annual Wicker & Wine® Basket Auction fundraiser on Nov. 7 at Mid-America Center (One Arena Way) in Council Bluffs, Iowa, from 5-7:30 p.m. Tickets are $40. For more information, visit lfsneb.org or call 402-342-7038.